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Colonial territory is labelled and colour-coded on this map of Southeast Asia. A list on the left edge gives the colonial status, size and population of Asian countries, and ranks the main cities by population. Gold and iron mines are marked.

This map highlights the colonisation of Southeast Asia, showing French Indochina (green), British Burma and Malaya (orange), the Dutch East Indies (pink), and the Spanish Philippines (green). In the region, only Siam (yellow) is independent.

This map charts the journey of Holt S. Hallett as he searched for a suitable route for a railway to transport British goods from Burma to Thailand and China. He wrote the book ‘A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in the Shan States’ about his expedition.

A map of Southeast Asia coloured to indicate the five different language families spoken in the region in the late 19th century. Names of indigenous tribes/languages are marked in red text, with European colonial possessions in grey.

A map of Siam (Thailand) and parts of Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia and Laos, focusing on the river networks, and the mountain ranges which are represented by hachures: short lines/dashes that give a sense of the shape and steepness of terrain.

This map of mainland Southeast Asia has colour-coded borders: Burmah (Myanmar) in red, Siam (Thailand) in brown, and Anam (Vietnam) in green. The British territory of Penang is also bordered in red. Independent areas are bordered in grey.

On this hand-drawn and coloured map of Asia, the colours differentiate the colonial territories of the European powers: for example, New Guinea is divided into Dutch, British and German areas, and Borneo is split between the British and Dutch.

This mid-19th century map of Asia has colour-coded borders that show the beginnings of the emergence of the modern nation states of Southeast Asia, such as Laos, Burmah (Burma), Siam (Thailand) and Malaya (Malaysia).

A sketch of the river networks discharging into the Gulf of Siam (Gulf of Thailand), derived from the observations of mid-19th century American missionaries. Settlements along the rivers are noted, as are areas where sugarcane was grown.

This map of Asia is from the mid-19th century ‘Grosser Atlas der Erde [Great Atlas of the Earth]’ by the German publisher Albrecht Platt. It shows part of Southeast Asia, including the region’s borders with India and China.

Although this mid-19th century map covers all of mainland Southeast Asia, the Burman Empire (Myanmar) is shown in greater detail, especially its districts, rivers and place names. It was produced by the James Wyld, geographer to Queen Victoria.

A mid-19th century map colour-coded with British, French, Portuguese, Danish and Dutch colonial possessions in India and western Southeast Asia, as well as the ‘Native States’. A table lists the dates when the British acquired each area.